The leaves are falling, the temperatures are dropping and the wind is mercilessly gusting with greater frequency, which can only mean one thing for local high school cross country runners: Their Super Bowl is fast approaching.

Saturday's regional meets will serve as the playoffs leading up to the Nov. 2 state meet at Michigan International Speedway – and a trio of Livonia Franklin harriers are primed to lead their team onto the big stage.

"This is the week I work for all year," said junior Natalie Douglas, who has joined seniors Ellary Marano and Mandy Pokryfky as the front-runners throughout the Patriots' wildly successful season. "This is the week when I look for some last-minute touches I need to work on so that I can perform my best on Saturday and, hopefully, the following Saturday."

"I get a little stressed out during regional week, mostly because I don't want the season to end," added Pokryfky. "I especially don't want this season to end because it's my last one and I enjoy it so much."

The Patriots will travel to Willow Metropark on Saturday for a Division 1 regional that features a deep and talented cast, including pre-meet favorite Northville, Salem, Livonia Churchill and Novi.

The top three placing teams will advance to MIS along with the top 15 individual finishers.

With personal-best 5-kilometer times of 19:30 (Douglas), 19:35 (Marano) and 19:55 (Pokryfky), the Franklin trio are all capable of qualifying as individuals, but they'd much rather prefer traveling to Brooklyn as a unit.

"This year's team has a good vibe," said Marano. "We have a lot of younger girls who are doing well, and we don't have any problems with one another, which is such an important component."

"It seems like the entire team has bought into what it takes to be successful," said Douglas. "From the last runner to the first runner, everybody really wants to improve their times and put in the hard work it takes to do that."

Franklin's season got off to a splendid start when it won the Livonia City Meet for the first time since 1989. The Patriots then lost just one KLAA South Division dual meet (to Churchill) and notched several strong showings in weekend invitationals.

Head coach Dave Bjorklund said its been a team-wide effort, but that the trio of Douglas, Marano and Pokryfky have been the catalysts.

"These three have really set the tone for where we're at as a team right now," Bjorklund said. "Going back to the South Lyon Invitational, they were our three medalists, and they went two-three-four to lead us to victory at the City Meet.

"Not to take anything away from the other kids, because we've had some other girls step up and run very well for us too, but these three have been consistently up there at all the big races. And they not only perform at the competitions, but they work hard at practice as well."

Bjorklund said Saturday's regional should be an ultra-competitive event.

"As far as getting the third qualifying spot, I like our team's chances just as good as any other team's," he said. "We've finished ahead of Churchill and Novi at various invitationals, and they've beaten us as well, so it's going to come down to which team performs the best on that day. It's going to be a great race."

All three Patriots excelled in endurance-based sports before taking on the challenging endeavor of distance running. Douglas and Marano were competitive swimmers before dedicating their talents strictly to dry-land racing, while Pokryfky has been strictly a runner for as long as she can remember.

"In elementary school, I was the little girl who was always running around the playground," she said, smiling. "One year we had a competition to see who could run around the blacktop the most times over the course of like four weeks, and I won a little medal. It's the only sport I'm good at, so that's why I've always done it."

Douglas was a competitive swimmer until seventh grade when she decided to trade in her suit for some running shoes.

"When I was in swimming, we would run a lot for dry-land training, and I was usually up in front of everybody," Douglas recalled. "In seventh grade, my mom asked me, 'Why don't you try cross country?' I thought she was crazy at first because I always thought of myself as a sprinter. But I tried it, I loved it and I made a decision to run only. It was one of the toughest decisions I've ever had to make because I loved swimming too, but I have no regrets."

If the Patriots don't advance to the state meet, it won't be due to a lack of preparation. Led by its talented threesome, the team ran an average of 50 miles per week during the summer. In-season training consisted of approximately 45 to 50 miles per week, although those numbers are tapering down as the suspenseful final weeks arrive.

"You get used to the constant cycle during the season of go hard, go home and rest, Tuesday dual meet and Saturday invitational," Marano said. "So this final week is a little unsettling because we're tapering and it's getting near the end, and you want to finish strong.

"You don't want Saturday's race to be your last one, but everybody you're racing against feels the same way, so you work as hard as you can and hope for the best."